Blackburn-based Cranberry Coachways received a formal warning after being called before Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC) Mark Hinchliffe following a desk top assessment of its vehicle maintenance record by the DVSA.
The operator, with a nine-vehicle national licence, appeared before the DTC at a Golborne Public Inquiry after the assessment showed there were a number of similar issues as were discovered in a maintenance investigation in 2016.
At the outset, Jonathan Backhouse said he felt that there should be more clarity in what was being asked for in such assessments as the detail required from operators was much more comprehensive than the initial five straightforward bullet points.
Some documents had not been submitted by the firm as it was not realised they were needed. It would be better if operators were clearly told what was required. In this case there had been no feedback for six months.
Mr Backhouse said that there were two businesses run by Christine Dixon and her son Martyn. Cranberry Coachways was engaged on private hire and school contracts, managed by Ms Dixon.
A new company, Cranberry Coachways Corporate, had been set up to carry out more executive style work with better class vehicles on international work, which was run by her son. Ms Dixon had completely revised her systems as a result of the desk top assessment, which covered the period May to December 2017. There had been three roadside encounters and no prohibitions issued so far this year.
Ms Dixon said that she had been in business for 30 years but had taken her eye off the ball last year because of health issues.
Drivers had received defect reporting training and she now checked over all the maintenance documents before signing them.
The self-employed maintenance contractor, who previously did the preventative maintenance inspections, had been taken on as an employee and the maintenance brought fully in-house.
The company had joined the FTA which would undertake annual audits of her systems.
Ms Dixon was booked on a two-day Transport Manager’s refresher course and she was training her son so that he could take over in the event she was off work for a time.
Agreeing she had made a complaint against a tester at the test station she had had problems with after successfully appealing a prohibition imposed at test, she maintained she had good relations with the DVSA.
Pointing out that two drivers had reported defects on vehicles Ms Dixon had driven the previous day without noting any defects, the DTC said that if she was training people in defect reporting she needed to be the best of the bunch.
Issuing a formal warning, the DTC said that he accepted the company was an operator with a long history and a good reputation. Initially he had felt cause for concern, but steps had been taken to bring about improvements.
Finally, he made it plain that a formal warning was not a “let-off”, saying it was a serious matter and a blot on the operator’s record.
